


Stained Glass Eyes and Colorful Tears

by Ciphon



Category: Fire Emblem: If | Fire Emblem: Fates
Genre: Angst, Blood, Character Death, F/M, Heavy Angst, I just have a lot of feelings okay, Mild Gore
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-09
Updated: 2015-10-09
Packaged: 2018-04-25 15:14:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,954
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4965841
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ciphon/pseuds/Ciphon
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Her eyes were like stained glass windows at the break of dawn.</p>
<p>He misses them.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Stained Glass Eyes and Colorful Tears

**Author's Note:**

> Quick thank you to the amazing, incredibly talented and sweet [postfixrevolution](http://archiveofourown.org/users/postfixrevolution/pseuds/postfixrevolution) Seriously, you shouldn't be reading my crap, go read her excellent Leo/Kamui works and bASICALLY EVERYTHING SHE EVER WRITES EVER BECAUSE SHE'S AMAZING! 
> 
> [sweats nervously as I continue writing for a game that I haven't played yet]

It reminded him of her eyes.  


The low hanging clouds bled a deep crimson color, melting into the sky, devouring the dark and leaving nothing but light in its wake. He knows he’s been up for a while now, fear creeping into his subconscious as he slept, waking him in a cold sweat. His imagination has plagued his dreams with images of his beloved falling to the ground, her own blood staining the dark earth the way the sun’s rays stain the sky.  


He’d watched the sunrise, seen the golden orb chase away the night and wipe any trace of its existence from the land. And yet, he found it impossible to forget the sight of Kamui, her beloved and trusty armor sliced into, exposing her vitals to the unforgiving, merciless steel of another’s sword.  


He tries to play off the shiver that creeps up his spine as a result of the morning breeze, but he still finds himself shrugging off the comforter, creaking his door open and peeking down the long, darkened halls. Leo has made the trek many times now, his feet tingling from the cool floor underneath. A right, left, and the second door on the right is in front of him—Kamui’s door.  


Leo hesitates, silently chiding himself. He’s doing this just to satisfy some silly fear, brought on by nothing but a bad dream. His toes curl briefly, fingers flexing and forming a fist a few times before finally giving in. _She’s interrupted my sleep for way less important issues many times_ he rationalizes, _knowing her, she’s probably still up; trying to read those big historical tomes I leant her about tactics._  


Having adequately convinced himself he was in the right to bother her at this time, Leo finally rapped his knuckles against her door before turning the knob and peering in. “Kamui?” he asked, his voice low. As predicted, she sat in her bed, a candle lit next to her as she read. The copious extra candle sticks littered around indicated she’d had to change them out a few times, and Leo felt a small warmth fill his chest.  


“Leo?” Kamui answered, her head turning to look at him. Her eyes were dreary, the bags underlining her crimson orbs darkened by the shadows cast from the flickering candle. “What—Is everything alright?” she asks, a slight alarm in her voice as she sits up straighter. He can tell she’s on edge, already probably coming up with every possible worst case scenario in her head.  


“No, nothing’s wrong, I just,” his eyes flickered to her window briefly, before returning to her. “I was taking a walk and noticed the light under your door, and wanted to make sure you hadn’t done something stupid like fallen asleep with a candle burning,” he nodded approvingly to himself, satisfied with the breezy fib.  


Kamui’s lips made a small “o” of understanding, her composure relaxing once more. “Well, thank you for checking in on me like that,” she shot him a warm, yet tired smile. Leo’s nose crinkled in disproval, worried for her sleep schedule, though he couldn’t deny the rush of heat to his face seeing her cute expression.  


“Can I help you with anything? Do you want me to check any of your tactic worksheets?” Leo inquired, worry seeping into his tone. Seeing her this exhausted was troubling, to say the least. He had been helping her day and night with her studies, and had noticed a significant rise in her abilities. It only now dawned on him that she must have spent countless hours into the night like this to try and better herself. A warmth spread through his chest at the thought. She really was something else…  


Kamui shook her head in reply, shaky fingers tucking a section of her silvery hair behind her pointed ears. “No…No, I’m alright for now. I just wanted to spend as much time as possible preparing…The Hoshidan forces are closing in and I…I guess I’m a little worried,” she laughed nervously, rushing her last words, a forced smile tight on her face.  


A frown weighed down Leo’s features as he regarded his sister, sauntering over to her bedside. One of his long, spindly fingers reached out, sliding up the hard wax of the candle stick before snuffing the flame between his fingertips. "You need to sleep.” His tone was bossy as usual, though his movements were kind. He pulled the bed sheet up over her, hesitating before smoothing a patch of her unruly hair, probably a result of her dozing off for a second in a weird position. His fingers hesitated, nose crinkling in a repressed smile, hovering for a second before finally pulling away. His tone was a bit softer when he spoke again, “we have nothing to fear. This war is ours, and we have the advantage, being able to defend quickly and properly. Don’t you remember that section from the old book of tactics I had you read?”  


Kamui scoffs a bit, her eyes adjusting to the darkness well enough to make out the shape of Leo, though silently thanking the night for hiding her scarlet blush. “In the past month, I’ve read more books about tactics than there are stars in the sky,” she exaggerated, earning a heavy eye roll from Leo.  


“You can ensure the safety of your defense if you only hold positions that cannot be attacked. Hence, one is considered skillful in defense when the opponent does not know what to attack.” Leo recited perfectly verbatim, earning an impressed applause from Kamui. Leo quickly shushed her, continuing, “Our lines are impenetrable. Hoshido will not know where to attack, and therefore their men will be scattered haphazardly all over our front lines, making it easy for us to push them right back all the way to their kingdom.” His strong, certain words eased the tension from Kamui’s form, and a small smile returned to her lips, this time not forced.  


“Yeah…I remember reading something like that. Thank you, Leo. I feel a lot better now. I’m sure we can win, if we’re together!” Her smile brightens and Leo’s heart seems to trip over itself, the moonlight filtering in through the curtains of her room illuminating her brilliantly.  


“Yeah, yeah. Just be careful and don’t do anything stupid…For once,” he attempts to play off his deep blush with a light tease, earning a dramatic, offended sounding gasp from Kamui as she swatted his arm playfully.  


“How rude!” She exclaimed, though her anger was poorly masked as she began to fall into a fit of giggles, despite herself. Leo’s lips twisted into an oppressed smile, and at that moment, all he could think about is how much he loves her. 

___ 

Someday, he'll think back to that night. He'll think about her lying there, her crimson eyes like stained glass windows at dawn. He'll think about her breathing, how level it had been and how her hair cascaded like a waterfall over ivory shoulders. He'll remember her warm skin, how it felt silky smooth after a long soak in lavender filled waters. Leo will be able to remember, with vivid detail, the pink of her soft lips; the lips he'd spent many a restless nights imagining against his own. 

He will remember her like that- full of life, gorgeous and sweet with a perpetual smile etched on her divine face. He has to remember her like that, because he knows that's what she'd want.  
And yet, no matter how many times he tells himself this, he still sees her how she looks now. 

Her sharp, blood red eyes are clouded over; dulled from lack of oxygen. Her pink lips are stained with a bright red that trickles down her pale chin. Her trusty armor, which she would claim made her invincible, is dented in spots, hugging the blade of a sword buried deep in her chest. Her silver hair is matted down with sweat, mud, and even more blood.

So much blood.

Leo has witnessed thousands of deaths throughout the current war; he'd watched men, women, and even children perish at the end of a sword or arrow. And yet, he knows this is a sight that will forever be seared into his memory. His knees sink into the mud as he collapses, helpless and lost.

He is lost.

There's a nameless Hoshidan soldier on the ground next to her, her signature blade, Yatogami, plunged in his chest as well. There's hate in Leo's eyes as he removed the blade in a quick tug, kicking the lifeless body as far away from his beloved's as possible. 

His heart is hammering in his chest, body trembling at the sight of such a powerful person reduced to a lifeless corpse so easily. No grand death for the sought after princess-no bold sacrifice in the presence of the two countries warring over her- just an unfitting, silent and premature death in the muddy woods of the front lines, at the hands of some nameless soldier. 

Leo reaches out to her, to hold her and whisper all the things he's been hiding to her dead body, but his heart can't take it. He wishes silently that the earth would swallow him up, that he could be free of this new, unbearably excruciating pain. Regular, skin-deep wounds were nothing compared to this pain. It filled him to the brim with agony; with self-loathing and loss and anguish like he’d never experienced before. 

His hands have never shaken as much as they did when he pulled the sword out of her. 

She doesn’t react; her body lays flat, and if it weren’t for the gaping hole in her chest, Leo might have assumed she was just spacing out on the ground. 

It’s too much. It’s all too damn much. He doesn’t want to cry, but he can’t fight it anymore. He cries out to her, he holds her close, he yells until his throat is raw and scratchy, his voice gone the same way she is. His hands are shaky as he removes his gauntlets, bare fingers meeting her skin, which feels the same as the cool air around them. Her body is stiff under him, rigor mortis having set in already. He doesn't even know how long ago she died. 

He tries as hard as possible to picture her as she used to be, but his memories are betraying him. He sees her corpse there instead, happy memories of playing or reading or studying together suddenly grim and eerie as her lifeless eyes bore into his skin. 

He doesn't want to touch her now; he wants to hold onto fading memories of her warmth, of when blood rushed through her body as her heart beat steadily in her chest. He wants to believe this isn't real, that she's somewhere in the rear guard with Elise, not lying in the blood soaked mud beneath him.

His eyes burn as he tries to forget the ring sitting in his drawer. The band was encrusted with rubies to match her eyes, surrounding a big diamond perched in the center. He wants to wash his mind free from all the plans and dreams for his future with her, because he knows it will only worsen the pain as the sense of loss drowns him. 

No matter what he does, what he tells himself or how hard he shuts his eyes to block out the sight of his sister, his love and the one good thing in his life-dead and cold and pale and so cold, it's no use.

She is lost to him.

And he knows that he will never be whole again.


End file.
